Faucet-type valve



Patented Nov. 11, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,262,062 FAUCET-TYPE VALVE Charles W. Strong, Portland, reg., asslgnor to Strong Manufacturing Company, Portland, 0reg., a corporation of Oregon Application November 6, 1940, Serial No. 864,516

Claims.

said froth or foam be present to some extent because such a head tends to seal the liquid and prevent other particles of gas from rising from the liquid and bursting and escaping.

Many efforts have been made to diminish or control the effective pressure on said liquids at the point of discharge and other efforts have been made to produce a valve which is quick acting so as to eliminate wire-drawing which produces a substantial amount of froth or foam as the valve approaches its seat in cut-oi! position. l

I have discovered that if the chamber of such faucet is arranged so that the inlet and discharge conduit are arranged in alinement, an unobstructed passageway slightly larger is arranged through said chamber connecting said conduits, and a spherical valve is moved axially along said passageway on guides, that a minimum amount of turbulence will be produced for producing such froth or foam. To create the desirable, thick, dense head of foam desired, I arrange one or more wells at the side of said interior passageway which accentuates the surface turbulence and thus only the surface of the stream pouring thru said valve is subjected to intense agitation while the remainder is permitted stream line flow therethru. To permit said stream line flow and quick cut-ofi I arrange the valve in the form of a sphere slidably mounted upon its stem and carried by guideways extending longitudinally of the passageway and I mount a relatively soft seat for said 'valve at the discharge outlet so that the valve can be quickly seated. The resiliency of said seat will damp out surge and prevent said valve from bouncing on the seat to permit minute portions to flow past the latter to promote froth or foam.

Another feature of my invention is to provide a control valve of this character in which the valve. its stem, the handle and the pivotal support for the stem may be arranged to form an assembled unit and said parts can be removed from the body of the valve as a unit, merely washer tends to prevent flow of liquid outwardly by unloosening a securing cap. This permits the movable part of a valve to be withdrawn without affecting the operating relations of said parts. This is quite important in a beer faucet because said parts must frequently be cleaned for sanitary reasons.

Other and more specific features of my invention are hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section thru a faucettype valve embodying my invention in "hich two positions of the valve are shown, one in full lines, and one in dotted lines;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary cross section of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1, taken on the line 2-2 in Fig. l to illustrate the manner in which a spherical valve is carried by two spaced lands defining a guideway;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on 3-3 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an elevation of the valve stem assembly removed from the body of the valve with the hold down nut shown broken away to illustrate details of construction which would otherwise be concealed; and

Fig. 5 is a larger scale view looking through the valve, diagrammatically illustrating the manner in which fluid flows thru the central chamber and the intake and discharge conduits and into a container illustrating how the parts are arranged to promote stream line flow in the main body of liquid and agitation and turbulence at the surface of the stream thus flowing.

A valve embodying my invention comprises a tubular body i, having a downwardly curved spout 2. I preferably arrange said spout at about the angle shown in Fig. 5 in order that beer being discharged therefrom will flow against the sides of a glass 3, rather than towards the bottom thereof. This tends to minimize agitation in the glass itself, which agitation would produce foam. Said body is provided with a neck Ia and projecting laterally therefrom and seated in and upon said neck is a stem support 5. Said stem support is loosely mounted in said neck, although having a relatively close fit therein and is held against displacement therefrom by a cap 5 in threaded engagement with the neck la.

The underside of said collar is formed with a concave socket 9. A semi-spherical ball section 6 is formed upon valve stem 1 and a relatively thick compressible washer 8 is arranged between the ball section 6 and socket portion 9. Said the line from said carrier and provides also a means for preventing the ball from freezing" in the socket. The upper surface of the stem support is convex and is formed upon a center common with that of a concave socket portion 9. A washer ll, correspondingly formed upon the convex section It), serves as a thrust member against which spring I2 bears. Said spring functions to draw the ball member 6 firmly against washer 8 and into concave socket portion 9, and permitting pivotal action of the stem I in body I.

Said stem is provided with a handle I3. The stem support is provided with an elongated aperture 24 extending therethru in which the stem is permitted to move and the washer H overlies said aperture at all points of movement of the handle l3, fitting over the concave surface of the support to exclude dust and foreign matter from the bore of the body. A nut I4 is provided with an elongated skirt overlying the springs I2 and serves as a means for adjusting the compression of said springs. Handle I3 is preferably threaded on the stem 1 and I prefer to place resilient washer I between nut H and handle I3 in order that said handle may be turned slightly without loosening it. Handles on beer faucets are preferably provided with a flat surface such as 16 for carrying advertising matter and it is desirable that said flat portions may be turned to a proper direction to render said advertising matter visible. The resiliency of washer l5 permits the handle to be turned slightly to accommodate said movement without becoming loosened. A threaded nut I! may, if desired, be interposed between the handle l3 and washer l5 so as to hold all the parts against movement if it is desired to remove the handle I3 to replace it without one having a different label or different advertising matter.

Said stem, with the devices heretofore described, lies exteriorly of the chamber in the body of the faucet. As has been pointed out, such stem is pivotally mounted and turns about an axis extending thru the center about which the spherical services of the ball and socket joint and the concave portion III of the stern support are scribed. Said stem 1 also extends into the chamber within said valve body and adjacent the lower end thereof is a spherical valve element l8. Said valve element slidably engages of hard material such as metal which is preferably highly polished so as not to present any unthe stem and has limited movement thereon between shoulder l9 of said stem and a .pin 20 extending diametrically thereof adjacent the extreme end of said stem.

The valve body defines a more Or less elongated passageway lb leading from the discharge end of the inlet conduit 23 to the intake end of the bore 2a of the spout 2. Said intake passageway 23 is alined with the bore 2a of the spout and-said passageway lb is alined with both of them. Underlying 'said passageway are two spaced lands Zla separated by a groove 2|. Said lands are curved to the curvature of the spherical valve member l8, and said valve member is supported by said lands. Said valve member is adapted to move along said lands towards and from the valve seat 22. Said valve seat preferably is made of comparatively soft material such, for example, as rubber or Neoprene. Although the stem 1 is pivotally mounted, the spherical valve element l8 moves in a straight line along said lands which define a guideway. The valve element thus moves squarely into and out of seating relation with its seat 22. As has been pointed out, the spherical valve member l8 preferably is made even surfaces to the flow of liquid around it and the'seat 22 is soft and resilient. Thus, if the valve I8 is suddenly seated, the resiliency of the material of which the seat is made will tend to absorb and damp out surge which would tend to cause the valve member iii to bounce upon its seat. My valve is adapted to control the flow of liquids under substantially high pressure and said pressure tends to hold the valve l8 tightly on its seat. In fact, with ordinary pressures in beer dispensing apparatus, said valve member tends to compress the seat to such a degree that it seemingly tends to cling to it to resist unseatmg.

The groove ZI defines a lateral ,well extending below the passageway ib, which opens into the latter. Above said passageway is another lateral well lc thru which the stem 1 extends more or less centrally. Thus, although the valve body is adapted to promote a stream line flow, as is illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 5, said well 2| and the well I c tend to provide lateral apertures in which there is little flow and the relative flow of the main stream past the mouths of said wells tends to-produce areas of extreme turbulence, as is illustrated in Fig. 5. Said extreme turbulence tends to produce froth and when the liquid is discharged, said thick froth is carried outwardly with the main stream and discharged into glass 3 to form the head illustrated in Fig. 5.

I deem is desirable that the stem be permitted to pivot only about an axis rather than universally and thus aperture 24 in stem support 4 is formed as an elongated hole. To aline the parts properly,- I preferably provide a rib 25 on the inside of the neck In of the body and a complementary groove 26 in said stem support. There is just one position in which said parts engage, and this is the position shown in the drawing in which the stem is centrally arranged in aperture 24.

As has heretofore been pointed out, all of the parts carried by the valve stem 1 are adapted to be adjusted relatively, and cap 5 is provided to permit the entire valve stem assembly to be removed as a unit. The sliding engagement of the spherical valve element I8 upon stem 1 permits a slight amount of accommodation of this spherical valve with the guideways defined by the lands 2la. No close adJustment must be made and thus the valve can be quickly disassembled by backing oil the cap 5 and removing the valve assembly in the manner illustrated in Fig. 4. The parts can then be cleaned and the valve assembly inserted in the body and fastened in place by screwing down the cap 5. This permits the valve to be taken apart and cleaned by any unskilled person.

I claim:

1. In a faucet-type valve comprising a tubular body having an interior chamber, alined, spaced inlet and Outlet conduits opening into s'aid chamber, and a passageway leading thru said chamber, a lateral well in said chamber opening into said passageway at a point intermediate said conduits, a guideway extending longitudinally of said passageway across the mouth of said well, a discharge port formed at the mouth of said outlet conduit, a spherical valve element seated upon and slidably supported by said guideway, a pivoted valve stem extending transversely of said passageway and generally longitudinally of said lateral well slidably engaging said valve element to move the latter towards and from said discharge port.

2. In a faucet-type valve comprising a tubular body having an interior chamber, allned, spaced inlet and outlet conduits opening into said chamber, and a passageway leading thru said chamber, a guideway extending longitudinally of said passageway, a discharge port formed at the mouth of said outlet conduit, a spherical valve element seated upon and slidably supported by said guideway, a pivoted valve stem slidably engaging said valve element to move the latter towards and from said discharge port, said valve element being hard and smooth-surfaced and a resilient annular valve seat mounted in said discharge port.

3. In a faucet-type valve comprising a tubular body having an interior chamber, alined, spaced inlet and outlet conduits opening into said chamber, and a passageway leading thru said chamber, a guideway extending longitudinally of said passageway, a discharge port formed at the mouth of said outlet conduit, a spherical valve element seated upon and slidably supported by said guideway, a pivoted valve stem slidably engaging said valve element to move the latter towards and from said discharge port, said valve element being hard and smooth-surfaced and a resilient annular valve seat mounted in said discharge port, the contour of the bore'of said seat and that of the bore of said spouttype discharge being formed, upon a smooth curve.

4. In a faucet-type valve comprising a tubular body having an interior chamber, allned, spaced inlet and outlet conduits opening into said chamber, and a passageway leading thru said chamber, a guideway extending longitudinally of said passageway, a discharge port formed at the mouth of said outlet conduit, a spherical valve element, a pivoted valve stem slidably engaging said valve element to move the latter towards and from said discharge port, a neck carried by said body, a pivotal stem support mounted thereon, said stem and said support having a ball-and-socket joint connection between them, a spring holder carried by said stem maintaining said connection, a removable cap overlying said support and engaging said neck to permit removal of said stem, stem support and spring holder as a unit.

5. In a faucet-type valve comprising atubular body having an interior chamber. allned, spaced inlet and outlet conduits opening into said chamber and a passageway leading thrumouth of said outlet conduit. a spherical valve 

